This disclosure relates to an oil spill clean-up apparatus and method, and more specifically to self-contained oil spill clean-up vessel with ice displacement capabilities.
An ice environment, for purposes of this disclosure, is water that contains free-floating ice in the form of ice chunks or ice particles. The ice chunks and/or ice particles usually float at or near the surface of the water. For purposes of this disclosure, ice chunks are larger than ice particles.
Oil spills in an ice environment pose a unique challenge in comparison to open water oil spills. Current clean-up methods do not provide adequate solutions for addressing oil spills in an ice environment.
There are many references that teach oil spill clean-up systems, but most of these are not useful in waters with ice floating on the surface. Examples of these include:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,540 to Conradi et al. (the “Conradi reference”);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,266 to Barnes et al. (the “Barnes reference”); and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,350 to Sorley et al. (the “Sorley reference”).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,454 to Miller et al. (the “Miller reference”) discloses a vessel that is useful in an ice environment. The Miller reference discloses a device for separating, in an ice environment, fluids having differing physical properties which combine an oleophilic pick-up device with a rotating tumbler mechanism which tends to agitate and propel oil coated pieces of ice rearward and along a perforated inclined through-put barrier where oil jarred off the ice chunks is allowed to rise through the perforations and be contained in an area where it can be accumulated and recovered by the pick-up unit.
All publications, patents, and patent applications cited herein, whether supra or infra, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.